A man has been charged with robbing an off-duty Chicago Police officer of his gun and badge last week during a crime spree in the Lake View neighborhood on the North Side.
Kendall Hammond, 18, faces four counts of robbery armed with a firearm, one count of disarming a peace officer, one count of unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle, one count of aggravated assault with a weapon to a peace officer and one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, all felonies, according to Chicago Police. He was also charged with one misdemeanor count of fraudulent use of a credit card.
About 9:25 p.m. Saturday, three gunmen robbed the off-duty cop while he and his wife were on their way to get ice cream in the 3100 block of North Ravenswood, authorities said.
Hammond and his friends held a gun to the woman’s head and a gun was pointed at the officer’s stomach while the suspects took his service weapon and badge, Cook County prosecutors said during Hammond’s bond hearing Thursday.
It was the second robbery the group had committed that day, prosecutors said. Earlier, Hammond and his friends robbed two people and used one of their credit cards.
Hammond later told investigators that he and his friends got off the Brown line at Diversey that day and went looking for cars to steal, prosecutors said. They eventually found one.
He also told detectives that they took the officer’s gun because they didn’t want to get shot and tried to sell the gun, but had no luck, prosecutors said.
Hammond was taken into custody about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 1400 block of North Halsted after officers stopped a vehicle sought in connection with the robbery.
Hammond, of the 500 block of West Chestnut, appeared in court Thursday, where Judge Laura Marie Sullivan ordered him held without bond, according to Cook County Circuit Court records. He is due in court again Tuesday.
